FSU scientific computing department hosts international ...( TALLAHASSEE Fla. -- Researchers from...)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Researchers from all over the world will gather at Florida State University for a major international conference that focuses on predicting the properties of materials and finding new ways to improve these properties.

More than 500 materials science scholars and professionals will exchange research findings related to complex materials problems and development of innovative theoretical and computational concepts, and they will address issues of importance to practical applications of "multiscale materials modeling" at the conference dubbed MMM2008, which will be held Oct. 27-31 at the Tallahassee/Leon County Civic Center.

FSU's new Department of Scientific Computing, formerly the School of Computational Science, is hosting the event after Professor Anter El-Azab led the team that presented the winning proposal at the conference's previous meeting in Germany two years ago. El-Azab, who directs a materials modeling and simulation lab at FSU, is the conference chair.

"To be chosen to host a meeting such as this one, an organization and its people have to have a worldwide reputation in the subject matter," said Max Gunzburger, chair of the Department of Scientific Computing. "This is recognition by the international research community of FSU's strength in materials science and Professor El-Azab's reputation as a leader in that community."

In a world where new technologies and products depend on the use of materials that are lighter, stronger, smaller and more flexible, scientists must be able to predict how different materials, including metals, glasses, ceramics and various composites, act under different conditions, at both the atomic or molecular level and at the macroscopic level; in other words, multiscale.

"If one wants to use a material in, say, a jet engine, how the material reacts to high temperature and mechanical forces may depend on what is happening at the molecular level," Gunzburger
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